Module rack for connection boxes of printed-circuit cards

ABSTRACT

The present invention relates to a module rack for the mounting of connection boxes of printed circuit cards which is characterized in that the module rack is intended for receiving connection boxes of any widths, the boxes being arranged according to rows located at different levels, and being inserted side by side in a row. In the arrangement disclosed, insertion, withdrawing or substitution of a connection box by another is extremely simple and requires a relatively short time. The module rack is particularly intended for the mounting of connection boxes which are utilized in data processing equipment.

United States Patent [191 Laboue Feb. 25, 1975 MODULE RACK FOR CONNECTION BOXES OF PRINTED-CIRCUIT CARDS [75] lnventor: Bernard Andre Laboue, Paris,

France [73] Assignee: Societe Honeywell Bull (Societe Anonyme), Paris, France [22] Filed: May 14, 1973 [21] Appl. No.: 360,221

[30] Foreign Application Priority Data May 17, 1972 France 72.17609 [52] U.S. Cl 312/350, 108/106, 211/175 [51] Int. Cl. A471 5/10, A47b 87/02 [58] Field of Search 312/244, 246, 350, 351',

[56] References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS Feldtkeller 211/175 Franks 248/23 2,756,369 7/1956 Gorrie 312/351 X 2,991,140 7/1961 Anderson et al. 312/351 X 3,050,194 8/1962 Sinninger; 312/350 X 3,052,363 9/1962 Foote et a1 312/351 X 3,119,643 1/1964 Levi et al 312/351 X 3,506,322 4/1970 Richards 312/108 Primary Examiner-Casmir A. Nunberg Attorney, Agent, or Firm-Fred Jacob [57] ABSTRACT The present invention relates to a module rack for the mounting of connection boxes of printed circuitcards which ischaracterized in that the module rack is intended for receiving connection boxes of any widths, the boxes being arranged according to rows located at different levels, and being inserted side by side in a row. in the arrangement disclosed, insertion, withdrawing or. substitution of a connection box by another is extremely simple .and requires a relatively short time. The module rack is particularly intended for the mounting of connection boxes which are utilized in data processing equipment.

6 Claims, 7 Drawing Figures PATENTEU F532 5 I 75 SHEET 1 or 7 FIG-1 FATENTEB FEBZ 5 I97 sum 2 95 Z 1 MODULE RACK FORCONNECTION BOXES OF PRINTED-CIRCUIT CARDS I BACKGROUND OF THE INVENTION The present invention. relates to'a module rack for connection boxes of printed-circuit cards.

In the construction of electronic equipment used in telecommunication, or for information processing, electrical circuits are widely used which are designed in the form of cards for printed circuits equipped with, or without, electronic components, to be inserted in connectors linked with interconnection circuits. These printed-circuit cards are usually mounted in rigid frames which are commonly called connection boxes because each of these frames exhibits the form ofa parallelepipedic box whose upper and lower sides consist of two systems of card guides, positioned, parallel side by side with their ends joined by two side plates; their back is formed by an interconnection panel that functions as support for rows of connectors whose contact parts are welded to conductor circuits of the interconnection panel. For exemplary purposes, a connection box of this type is particularly described in the French Pat. No. 2,085,476, filed by the industrial company Bull General Electric on Apr. 24, 1970.

' These connection boxes are usually located in the interior of a rigid module rack which isso constructed as to enable the maintenance personnel to have easy access to these boxes and possibly remove them from the rack to replace them. For this purpose, the rack is equipped with sideways on which rest the lower edges of the side plates of the boxes which are entered into the rack, each box being thus supported by two slides whose distance from one another corresponds with the width of the box. So asto limit the space requirements of the rack, the connection boxes are positioned in the 7 rack in such a fashion that they form superimposed rows, the boxesv all being of the same height and being placed in each of these rows side byside. This rack may, for example, take the form of a set of pigeon holes of that type which was particularly described and represented in the French Pat. No. 1,567,300, filed on Mar. 21, 1968.

In electronic equipment of such design, it is not possible to install between two sideways of the rack, connection boxes whose widths differ substantially from the distance between these slides. This fact presents the more serious a drawback, especially .in that in such equipment as utilized for information processing, one is frequently forced to employ, in response to the needs of the user, connection boxes which contain a more or less large number of printed-circuit cards, whose width, therefore, differs significantly from box to box. Furthermore, in conventional equipment when one has to replace connection boxes by others of greater width, to increase the range of their use or for reasons of function of this equipment, one is sometimes forced to change the position ofthe slides, or even remove some of them. This is only feasible at the cost ofanoccassional substantial modification of the rack and as a practical matter requires the sending of the rack toa factory that is capable of handling this modification.

SUMMARY OF THE INVENTION The I present invention corrects this drawback and proposes a rack designed to take connection boxes for printed-circuit cards, this rack being suited to receive connection boxesof different width while offering the greatest possibilities for the interchangeability of the boxes. Moreoventhe mounting, the withdrawal, or interchanging of the boxes in this rack can be carried out, I

using special tools for plate and a left side plate, each equipped with a front edge and a rear edge, a set of front bars, running parallel to each other, between the front edges of these two plates, a set of rear bars, equal in number to the front bars, attached between the rear edges of these two plates, each rear bar being connected with a respective front bar and being positioned on the same level as the latter, and a system of sideways, each placed between a front bar and a rear bar linked up to support the lower lateral edges of the connection boxes which are entered into the rack. This rack is characterized in that'each bar comprises a series of identical openings, placed at regular intervals, following an alignment direction parallel to the length of the bar, and in that each slideway is removable and provided at each of its ends with at least one opening whose form is different from;the r openings of the bars. These openings consist either of circular holes, or of oblong apertures running in said alignment direction. The rack is also characterized in that the width of the oblong apertures as well as their rate of distance when they are drilled into the bars are established as a function of the distanceseparating two consecutive circular holes in such a way that at least one opening of each end of the slides is facing one of the openings of the bars of the rack, irrespective of the position of that end along these bars. This makes it pos-. sible for an attachment part to pass through these open" ings to achieve the solid connection with thisend with the rack.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWING Other characteristics and advantages of the invention will evolve in the following description, presented for purposes of an example, and by referring to the attached drawing in which:

FIG. 1 is a perspective view, having portions broken away of an equipment console for information processing, this console containing two module racks, installed according to the invention;

FIG. 2 is a perspective view of a module rack according to the invention showing the manner in which the connection boxes are arranged in this module rack;

FIG. 3 is a perspective view of a connection box for printed-circuit cards in an exploded representation to better bring out certain details;

FIG. 4 is a detailed view demonstrating the manner in which a connection box inserted in the module rack 125 through the oblong openings -1 of that rear bar. The other end of the bar 200 is connectedwith the base 203 (FIG. 5) carrying two screw holes 204 which permit, as shown in FIG. 4, the fastening of the slide onto one of the front bars BV of the module rack with the screw 126 through the oblong openings 20-1 of this front bar. The base 203 also carries twoother screw holes 205, each provided to receive one of the attachment screws 124 of the connection boxes mounted in the module rack. The slideway, shown in FIG. 4, is equipped on its upper face with a longitudinal groove 206 whose width e is slightly larger than twice the thickness of the side plates of the connection boxes.

of a connection box through the front of the module rack. this lateral plate resting with its lower edge 127 on the bottom of the groove 206, and to push it (the plate) to the very rear end of this groove.

In view of the fact that the width of the connection boxes may be quite different from box to box,-it is i highly desirable that each of the slideways maybe placed in any position along the front and rear bars of the module rack. Inthe design example illustrated in FIGS. 2 and 4, this objective was accomplished by providing oblong apertures 20-] and 20-2 in the front and rear bars of the module rack, as shown in FIG. 6, whose length l is larger than the distance d which separates the two holes 202 (or the two holes 204) bored in each of t the bases of the slideways for the fastening of these slideways to the module rack. Additionally, these openings are separated from each other in the same row by an interval m whose dimension is at most equal to that of d. These holes and openings thus satisfy the double inequality:

The result is that the pitch 1, by which the oblong openings are arranged in the same row, is at the maximum equal to the sum total of the length tof the oblong openings and the distance a separating the two circular holes of a base:

Under these conditions, irrespective of the position the connection boxes may be positioned side by side in the module rack, the adjoining side plates 1078 and 1088 of two contiguousboxes being engaged inthe same groove 206, as shown by schematic representation in FIG. 6. The number of connection boxes which may be thus placed side by side on the same level in the module rack obviously depends on the width of these boxes and on the length of the bars of the module rack. In this fashion, the connection boxes are arranged in the example of embodiment, illustrated in FIG. 2, on three different levels in themodule rack, each level comprising two boxes placed side by side. In the module rack of FIG. 2, on each level a more or less large number of boxes may, however, be accommodated, provided that the width of the assembly of boxes placed on the same level remains below the length of the front and rear bars of this rack. The cooling of the circuits of the cards enclosed in the connection boxes installed in the module rack is achieved, as shown in FIG. 2, by small fans 22 which, located in drawers 23 placed under the module rack, circulate air through the boxes mounted in this rack so that this air passes through ventilation holes 114, mentioned above.

To render the'cooling effective, it is necessary that each box mounted in'the module rack be positioned either immediately above the fans 22 or just above a box through which the air generated by the fans 22 has alof the slideway along a bar of the module rack, at least I one of the two circular holes for the attachment of. the base to that bar is always positioned opposite an oblong opening of this bar. The slideways 21 may, consequently, always beplaced in the module rack in such a way that the distance L separating two adjoining slideways be practically equal to the length of the connection box which has to be supported by these two slides. During the installation of'this connection box in the module rack, the two lateral plates 1078 and 1088 of this box are engaged in the grooves206 of these two slideways and, guided by the latter, may be pushed to the back of the module rack .until the attachment screws 124 of that connection box may be inserted into the holes 205 corresponding with the slides.

In view of the fact that the, width ofeach groove 206 slightly exceeds twice the thickness of a lateral plate,

ready passed. To force the air thus circulating through all the boxes in the rack, it was found, furthermore, especially useful to eliminate as much as possible the empty spaces between boxes placed on different levels in the module rack. In the described example, this objective is accomplished by the utilization of connection boxes of a height equal to the distance between two consecutive front bars between which one wishes to place the box in the rack. During their engagement in the module rack, the upper edges of the lateral plates 1078 and 1088 of these boxes may in this case be set, in the'grooves of the slideways 24 mounted in the module rack as shown by FIG. 6. The grooves of these slides, similar to the slides 21, are turned downward and are attached between a front bar and an associated rear bar by means of screws 126 inserted through the oblong openings20-2 drilled in these bars. This particularly useful arrangement permits the useof only a reduced number of fans to provide for the cooling of the circuits of the connection boxes in an efficient manner. Yet, in the case where the connection boxes mounted in the module rack would not occupy the entire room available in the height between two consecutive front bars, one could effect the cooling of the circuits of the boxes placed on the same level in the rack by installing a row of fans underneath the boxes of that level. In this case, however, since the slideways 24 become useless, each of the front and rear bars of the module rack would only carry a single row of openings 20 intended solely for the attachment of the slideways 21 to the rack.

In another design version, illustrated in FIG. 7, the openings provided in the front and rear bars of the module rack for the fastening of the slideways consist of circular holes 30, so that each bar comprises at least the connection boxes during their insertion into the module rack.

3. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that each of the slideways is provided with two circular holes; and wherein the first openings are oblong openings drilled in each of the bars of the module rack each exceeding, in length, the distance between these two circular holes and being separated from each other by an interval whose dimension is at the most equal to said distance.

4. A module rack according to claim l, characterized in that each end of each slideway has a single oblong opening formed therein; and wherein the first openings are circular holes bored in each of the bars of the module rack and being spaced from each other at a distance that is at the most equal to the length of that oblong v in that each connection box is provided with ventilation openings on its lower face andon its upper face; and wherein the modular rack includes at least one row of ventilators arranged below the group of connection boxes placed in the modular rack to providelfor the cooling of the circuits contained in the connection boxes. 

1. An improved module rack for mounting a plurality of connection boxes that may be of non-uniform widths, and that may have lower lateral edges which protrude below the lower faces of the boxes, comprising: two vertical side plates which are disposed parallel to but spaced from each other, each of the vertical side plates having a front edge and a rear edge; a set of front bars, each of which having a length equal to the distance between the two vertical side plates and which extend between the two vertical side plates, with the ends of each of the front bars being fastened to the front edges of the two vertical side plates such that the front bars are substantially parallel to each other and are substantially perpendicular to the two vertical side plates; a set of rear bars, each of which having a length equal to the distance between the two vertical side plates and which extends between the two vertical side plates, with the ends of each of the rear bars being fastened to the rear edges of the two vertical side plates such that the rear bars are substantially parallel to each other and are substantially perpendicular to the two vertical side plates and with the number of rear bars in the set of rear bars being equal to the number of front bars in the set of front bars, each of the front bars being associated with one of the rear bars so as to form a pair of bars and so that the planes defined by these pairs of front and rear bars are substantially perpendicular to the two vertical side plates and are substantially parallel to the horizontal; a plurality of slideways, each adapted to be removably mounted between front and rear bars of a pair of bars, each having a front end, a rear end and body portion which extends between the front and rear ends and each having a length substantially equal to the distance between the front and rear bars of a pair of bars; each slideway also including a groove which extends parallel to the longitudinal axis of the slideway and which has a width slightly larger than twice of the thickness of the lower lateral edge of the connection boxes so that the adjoining lower lateral edges of two adjacent connection boxes can fit within the groove when the two connection boxes are placed side by side in the module rack; means for mounting the slideways to and between the front and rear bars of a pair of bars, the mounting means including: a first series of identical, first openings formed in the front and rear bars and regularly spaced along lines parallel to the longitudinal axes of the front and rear bars; at least one second opening formed in each of the front ends of the slideways; at least one second opening formed in each of the rear ends of the slideways, with the second openings in the front ends of the slideways being identical to the second openings in the rear ends of the slideways; and fastening means adapted to cooperate with aligned first and second openings in an adjacent bar and end of a slideway so as to prevent relative movement therebetween, one of the first and second openings having an oblong shape, with the major axes of these oblong shaped openings being parallel to the longitudinal axes of the front and rear bars of a pair of bars and the other of the openings having a circular shape, the first openings being spaced along the bars so that regardless of the position of the ends of a slideway along the bars, a first opening and a sEcond opening will always be aligned so that a fastening means can cooperate with these aligned first and second openings to prevent relative movement therebetween.
 2. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that the connection boxes mounted in the module rack between any two consecutive front bars take up in height the entire space between these two front bars; each of the bars of the rack being provided, moreover, with a second series of first openings, which are identical with the first openings of the first series and which are aligned with and parallel to them so as to permit the mounting of the slideways in said rack with the slideways serving as a guide for the upper lateral edges of the connection boxes during their insertion into the module rack.
 3. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that each of the slideways is provided with two circular holes; and wherein the first openings are oblong openings drilled in each of the bars of the module rack each exceeding, in length, the distance between these two circular holes and being separated from each other by an interval whose dimension is at the most equal to said distance.
 4. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that each end of each slideway has a single oblong opening formed therein; and wherein the first openings are circular holes bored in each of the bars of the module rack and being spaced from each other at a distance that is at the most equal to the length of that oblong opening.
 5. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that the slideways are equipped with attachment means to keep the connection boxes in place in the modular rack when the connection boxes are in the module rack.
 6. A module rack according to claim 1, characterized in that each connection box is provided with ventilation openings on its lower face and on its upper face; and wherein the modular rack includes at least one row of ventilators arranged below the group of connection boxes placed in the modular rack to provide for the cooling of the circuits contained in the connection boxes. 